Global Warming Policy Foundation

The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) is a United Kingdom group opposing action to mitigate climate change. Founded by Nigel Lawson,, it is a registered educational charity "deeply concerned about the costs and other implications of many of the policies currently being advocated" to mitigate global warming. . Although founder Lawson claims to accept that anthropogenic global warming is occurring, his acceptance is unconvincing ; the group's banner image sports a short-term temperature graph to appear as though the world is not warming.

Start Up
The GWPF was founded, curiously, at the same time as the climategate emails were released on the University of Tomsk's server. At the time of it's foundation the average age of it's trustees was 74. Chairman Nigel Lawson stated "We will certainly be actively involved in monitoring what is being said, in correcting errors where the are errors. The only thing we will not be actively engaged in is what are the causes of the temperature changes on the planet: how much is CO2, how much is solar radiation, how much is cosmic rays. We won't be getting into all that."

Funding
The Global Warming Policy Foundation does not reveal where its funding comes from. In their first years accounts they say "the soil we till is highly controversial, and anyone who puts their head above the parapet has to be prepared to endure a degree of public vilification. For that reason we offer all our donors the protection of anonymity." The accounts show the extent to which the secretive Foundation is funded by anonymous donors, compared with income from membership fees. Its total income for the period up to 31 July 2010 was £503,302, of which only £8,168 came from membership contributions. The foundation charges a minimum annual membership fee of £100.

Charitable Status
The GWPF is a registered charity (Number 1131448), which gives it certain tax advantages. It's charitable objectives are stated as: "To advance the public understanding of global warming and of it's possible consequences, and also of the measures taken or proposed to be taken in response to it, including by means of the dissemination of the results of the study of and research into (a) the sciences relevant to global warming (b) it's impact upon the environment economies and society (c) and the above mentioned measures."

Location
The GWPF is located at 1 Carlton House Terrace, London, in a room rented from the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.

Personnel
In November 2009, the GWPF listed:

Director

 * Benny Peiser, Director; a social anthropologist.
 * Sir James Spooner is Honourary Treasurer

Board of Trustees
The Board of Trustees includes:
 * Lord Barnett
 * Peter R. Forster (the Bishop of Chester)
 * Lord Donoughue
 * Lord Fellowes
 * Martin Jacomb
 * Lord Lawson (Chairman)
 * Henri Lepage
 * Baroness Nicholson
 * Lord Turnbull

Academic Advisory Council
The Academic Advisory Council includes, ,


 * Adrian Berry, Viscount Camrose
 * Samuel Brittan
 * Ian Byatt
 * Freeman Dyson
 * Christian Gerondeau
 * William Happer
 * David Henderson
 * Terence Kealey
 * Anthony Kelly
 * Richard Lindzen
 * Alan Peacock
 * Ian Plimer
 * Gwyn Prins
 * Paul Reiter
 * Philip Stott
 * Richard Tol
 * David Whitehouse
 * Matt Ridley
 * Hal Lewis
 * Ross McKitrick.
 * Vincent Courtillot

Actions
In an op-ed announcing the GWPF launch and hopefully predicting failure of the December 2009 United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen, Nigel Lawson called for a high-level independent inquiry into the content of the emails stolen from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit.

When the three British Government enquiries into the CRU email saga were completed Dr Benny Peiser of the Global Warming Policy Foundation immediately announced it would to stir the issue up once more. Andrew Montford was commisioned to write an "enquiry" into the climategate emails claims and was paid £3000 for his efforts. The results were released in September 2010  The choice of Montford was ironic given the serious inaccuracies in his book, The Hockey Stick Illusion. Furthermore the Global Warming Policy Foundation's own funding is mired in controversy whilst it enjoys charitable status, yet Montford himself is critical of what he calls 'fake charities'. In his "enquiry" Montford criticized the official enquiries for not including known skeptics on their panels. This is a distortion of the truth however, since the Parliamentary Enquiry at the least included Graham Stringer Labour MP for Blackley and Broughton, a man who has consistently voted very strongly against laws to stop climate change. Montford knows this and records a cosy chat with Stringer on his blog

External resources

 * The GWPF website

External articles

 * GWPF calls for transparency but refuses to make public its donors
 * Lawson and the think-tank bent on hijacking global warming debate http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/lawson-and-the-thinktank-bent-on-hijacking-global-warming-debate-1833142.html